APS/User News

John P. Connolly Appointed Director of the AES

I am pleased to announce that John P. Connolly joined the Argonne Photon Sciences (PSC) Directorate as Division Director of the APS Engineering Support (AES) Division as of March 14, 2016.

John Connolly brings to the AES Division a highly diverse engineering, project management, and leadership skill set and a record of success that make him the ideal person for this critically important job. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, John earned a Master of Business Administration, magna cum laude, from Duquesne University. He is also a graduate of the Executive Education Program at the Darden Graduate School of Business, and of the Intensive Course in Innovation and R&D at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. John has distinguished himself during a 15-year professional career at Westinghouse Electric, LLC. He began as an Associate Engineer and within three years was promoted to Senior Engineer (including designation as a hands-on Technical Lead) with supervisory responsibility for multiple customer projects. In that role, he was the recipient of a George Westinghouse Signature Award of Excellence. John was next chosen for Westinghouse’s highly selective Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing Black Belt program. He continued to rise at Westinghouse as a Technical Manager entrusted with direct oversight of high-potential leaders and with business process optimization and cost improvement projects for a large field services business segment. Next, as an Engineering and Resource Manager, John supervised a large and technically diverse group of employees in product engineering, and additionally had oversight and management responsibility for IT platforms for the product engineering department. His current role at Westinghouse is in Global Product and Portfolio Management with responsibility for fiscal and global product strategy, growth objectives, new product development and introduction as well as associated R&D for an array of component designs, totaling over $250+ million in annual revenue. In this capacity, John earned another George Westinghouse Signature Award of Excellence.

In his new role as the Division Director of AES, John will be responsible for leading a Division that provides a broad range of engineering expertise for both APS operations and for the APS Upgrade Project. As one of the key members of the Photon Sciences Directorate Senior Management Team, John will be accountable for delivering the engineering excellence that will continue to maintain the world-leading stature of the APS accelerator complex and beamlines, and ensuring that the APS Upgrade Project succeeds in transforming the APS into a next-generation light source.

I also wish to thank John Maclean for his superb and tireless service over the last one and a half years as interim AES division director. His thoughtful leadership has been foundational for the APS. Finally, I thank the members of the search committee for their thorough, diligent efforts. Their commitment to identifying and evaluating excellent candidates has been essential in bringing this search to a very successful conclusion.